Music Education

Re Interview, Judith Balfe, Opinion, Feb. 25: My ticket to the magic and creative world of music started in 1958 with a 10-cent school bus ride from Bell Gardens Elementary to the L.A. Philharmonic. With the downbeat of the conductor's baton, a whole new world became alive before my eyes and filled my ears with a love and appreciation of music that grows to this day. It's not too late to inspire and educate through music. A string or wind ensemble can travel to the elementary schools where children await with open minds and ears.

Shakespeare wrote about the "sweet power of music." Now scientists are finding that the bard was more correct than he could have possibly known. A team of UC Irvine researchers Friday released results of a pilot study they said strongly indicates that music education stimulates the brains of preschool children to enhance learning. "There are growing indications that music serves as nurturing stimulation to exercise the intellect," said Norman Weinberger, a psychobiologist at UCI.

How can the issue of arts education programs be made as compelling as, say, global human rights? Put Stevie Wonder in charge of it. Who else could turn the phrase "music education in the schools" into a funky call-and-response chant? That's what Wonder did--twice--in appearances during the taping of the fourth annual VH1 Honors concert Thursday at the Universal Amphitheatre, an annual benefit dedicated this year to music education.

Gustavo Dudamel will fly to Caracas, Venezuela for the funeral Friday of President Hugo Chavez, and the L.A. Philharmonic music director might lead a concert tied to the Chavez events. The Venezuelan-born conductor is expected to head to Caracas directly after the Thursday evening performance of "The Gospel According to the Other Mary" at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Grant Gershon, the artistic director of the L.A. Master Chorale, will conduct the Friday evening performance of the piece.

August 26, 1994 | NANCY KAPITANOFF, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES; Nancy Kapitanoff writes regularly for The Times.

It is a commonly held notion in our society that learning to play a musical instrument during childhood will enrich a person's life forever. Consequently, many parents feel obligated to see that their children take music lessons. Some grown-ups maintain that the best way to interest kids in music is through one-on-one lessons. But there is a whole school of thought--backed up by several San Fernando Valley-based programs--that argues otherwise.

Music education in most South Bay elementary schools still strikes a strong note and is expected to get stronger, despite severe budget problems and heavier allocations of scarce resources to basic subjects in recent years, according to most school officials. Indeed, some administrators, like Gail Wickstrom of the Torrance Unified School District, see a renaissance in the instruction of music and other arts.

Shakespeare wrote about the "sweet power of music." Now scientists are finding that the bard was more correct than perhaps even he knew. A team of UC Irvine researchers released results of a pilot study Friday that they said strongly indicates that music education stimulates the brains of preschool children and enhances learning. The children in the study could perform certain tasks better after having music training, the researchers said.

With music training, or even appreciation, so scarce in public schools these days, parents find themselves in a bind when they hear news reports that music instruction, the earlier the better, seems to sharpen kids' overall learning ability. But this Saturday, parents with toddlers ages 18 months to 3 years can provide a little bit of music appreciation and experience for their youngsters. At the Barnes & Noble in Northridge from 10 to 11 a.m.

"If I were Justin, I would have handled it differently," quipped Stevie Wonder at the start of a rare and intimate show at the House of Blues on Friday. Appearing as part of an American Express-sponsored series of Grammy-week shows benefiting music education programs, Wonder showed that he could teach Justin Timberlake a lot more than just how to deal with the Super Bowl Nipplegate fallout.

In 1842 when Verdi wrote "Nabucco," he knew that fellow patriots would recognize his lament of the exiled Jews in Babylon ("Va pensiero") as a thinly veiled cry against Austrian rule in Italy. Saturday night at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, John Alexander and the Pacific Chorale expanded the implied struggle for freedom into a prayer for the people of Eastern Europe. Choral groups representing 19 Orange County high schools joined the chorale in its supplication.